SOUTH CAROLINA WEATHER AND CLIMATE

February 2 - 8, 2004


WEATHER SUMMARY

Cold days under mostly cloudy skies and off and on rains made for a dreary Monday through Thursday. Brief periods of sleet and freezing rain were reported Monday across the state's higher elevations. The season's first thunderstorms, in advance of a cold front, produced three quarter inch hail in Lexington County on Monday evening. Morning low temperatures during the period were in the 20's. Southerly winds gusting to over thirty mph on Friday pushed high temperatures into the 70's for a welcomed warm up. This was short lived however as strong cold front overnight and into Saturday replaced the Spring-like conditions with scattered heavy rains and cold northerly winds gusting to 40 mph. Sharp rises on rivers were noted and several flood stages were reached. Skies cleared for Sunday but high temperatures in the 40's and low 50's made it feel once again that Winter was far from over. The average statewide temperature for the period was four degrees below normal.

The state's highest reported temperature was 78 degrees at Orangeburg on February 6. The lowest temperature was 17 degrees at Caesars Head on morning of February 8. The heaviest 24-hour rainfall reported was 2.28" at Salem ending at 7:00 a.m. on February 3. The average statewide rainfall for the period was 1.1”.

PRECIPITATION AND TEMPERATURE DATA



                             Precipitation                 
                       Weekly   Jan 1  Deviation     
                        Total   Total   From Avg
         Greer           2.44    3.86       -1.7          
      Columbia           0.72    1.91       -3.9
   Augusta, GA           0.73    3.15       -2.5           
     *Florence           0.17    1.10       -3.9   
  Myrtle Beach           0.67    2.90       -1.7            
    Charleston           0.97    2.54       -2.4  
             
   *Equipment problems have made rainfall reports unreliable

   
        

Note: Weekly rainfall amounts are for the 24-hour period ending midnight Sunday.

SOIL

4 inch depth average soil temperature: Columbia 44 degrees.

RIVERS AND SURF

South Carolina river stages were at or above normal. Surf temperatures at Myrtle Beach
and Savannah will average around 45 degrees.


sco@water.dnr.state.sc.us
http://water.dnr.state.sc.us/climate/sco/weekly/wk020804.html